Bullpen Report: September 26, 2013

Jim Johnson surrendered a hit and fanned one in a clean inning of work to notch his 48th save of the season. The thirty-year-old has now saved nine in-a-row, making him 48-of-57 on the season. The Orioles will face the Red Sox in a three-game series to conclude the twenty-thirteen season, giving Johnson a few more opportunities to eclipse the 50 save mark for the second straight season. Aside from the lack of production in the strikeout category, Johnson paid handsome dividends for his fantasy baseball owners that were willing to reach for him at his average draft position of 123.

Greg Holland took to the bump for the 67th time this season tonight, equaling the number of appearances he made just a year ago. But aside from the number of appearances, Holland’s stat sheet will look significantly different than 2012’s. Tonight’s save thrusted the right-hander’s impressive total to 47 on the year. Entering Thursday, the Royal’s ninth-inning man fanned more than 40% of the batters he faced — up from 31.5% in ‘12 — and surrendered free passes to just 6.9% of opponents — down from 11.8% last year. Holland’s ERA (1.23, 1.35 FIP) and WHIP (0.83) continued to dip after tonight’s outing, and barring a major implosion, will be career bests for the reliever. The soon-to-be 28-year-old will surely be among the top-ten closers selected in fantasy baseball drafts in 2013.

Jim Henderson served up two-hits — one of which left the park — but fanned three en route to his 27th save of the season. The homer Henderson served up was the fifth he’s surrendered in his last ten outings — making it eight earned allowed since August 31st. The 30-year-old Canadian is now 27-of-31 in save opportunities in ‘13 with a 2.75 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP.

And like Colin noted last evening, Mariano Rivera took to the bump in Yankee Stadium for the last time tonight in a 4-0 Bombers loss to the Rays. The future Hall-of-Famer induced two groundouts and two fly-ball outs in tonight’s thirteen-pitch clean effort. Although there was no save attached to this evening’s lines, Mo’s entrance and exit was an incredibly emotional and amazing moment for Yankee and baseball fans alike.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	J.J. Putz	Heath Bell
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Scott Downs
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Tommy Hunter	Francisco Rodriguez
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Craig Breslow	Andrew Bailey
CHI (NL)	Kevin Gregg	Pedro Strop	Blake Parker
CHI (AL)	Addison Reed	Nate Jones	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Sam Lecure
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Joe Smith	Cody Allen
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle	Wilton Lopez	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Jose Veras	Drew Smyly
Houston	Josh Fields	Chia-Jen Lo	Josh Zeid	Jose Cisnero
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Dane de la Rosa	Kevin Jepsen	Robert Coello
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Paco Rodriguez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	Mike Dunn	Chad Qualls
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	Brandon Kintzler	Michael Gonzalez
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	LaTroy Hawkins	David Aardsma	Gonzalez Germen	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Shawn Kelley
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Justin De Fratus	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Justin Wilson
St. Louis	Edward Mujica	Trevor Rosenthal	John Axford	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Danny Farquhar	Yoervis Medina	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee	Jesse Crain
Texas	Joe Nathan	Tanner Scheppers	Jason Frasor
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Steve Delabar	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]